here’s some I’ve noticed:
- Why do we have articles? They’re mostly useless.
- Why do capital letters exist? (this is mainly an issue with the Greek and Latin alphabet though)
- Why is “I” used plural for verbs?
- Why are there so many inconsistent prefixes for tenses?
- 's is used for possessives. However, “its” is the possessive and “it’s” is not.
- Why do we have another set of pronouns for possessive pronouns?
- Why do adjectives go before the noun compared to basically every other language?
English lets you get away with saying things you don’t exactly mean. A lot of the efforts from groups that might be disparaged as ‘woke’ over preferred terminology exist because it allows for so much ambiguity.
To use a common example: there’s a difference between “Group X struggle to get bank loans” and “Banks have consistently not loaned to Group X” in terms of where the fault lies, but because English allows us to use the former to mean the latter, it seems like an imposition to be reminded.
Other languages - e.g. German - don’t allow for this: your intended emphasis changes the word order, so you have to think about what you really mean.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love
That book seems stacked for quotes.
“Son, I hate to say this — because, if you’ve been reading a lot of English, I see how you reached that opinion — but you are one hundred percent wrong.”
Fixed, thanks.